Neoliberalism is the contemporary form of global capitalism. The neoliberal transition in the world economy is closely associated with ‘globalisation’ and with the onset of new modalities of imperialism. At the domestic level, neoliberal transitions have transformed significantly the material basis of countries as diverse as Britain, the United States, Poland, South Korea, Brazil, South Africa, India and Zambia. These transitions include, but they are not limited to, shifts in economic and social policy. They encompass the transformation of the modalities of economic and social reproduction in different countries and regions, and significant changes in the modes of exploitation and social domination. Broadly speaking, neoliberalism is based on the systematic use of state power to impose, under the ideological veil of non-intervention, a hegemonic project of recomposition of the rule of capital in each area of economic and social life. The exercise of global power is guided by the current imperatives of the international reproduction of capital, with the financial markets and the interests of US capital to the fore. The neoliberal project has, however, reconstituted economic and social relations differently in the context of different countries rather than globally homogenising as has often been claimed by globalisation’s critics and supporters alike.
The political counterpart of these processes is growing limitation on domestic politics by insulating markets and transnational investors from popular demands, and the imperative of labour control to secure international competitiveness. This has reduced the scope for ‘autonomous’ social policies, and led to higher levels of unemployment and job insecurity in most countries than was the case previously. It has also created an income-concentrating dynamics of accumulation that has proven immune to Keynesian and reformist interventions if seriously attempted.
The inability of the neoliberal reforms to support higher levels of investment, growth rates and welfare is proven. The primary purpose of the neoliberal reforms, although presented otherwise, is not to promote faster growth, reduce inflation or even to increase the portfolio choices of the financial institutions. It is to subordinate local working classes and domestic accumulation to international imperatives, promote the microeconomic integration between competing capitals, mediated by finance, and expand the scope for financial system intermediation of the three key sources of capital in the economy: state finance, the financing of domestic accumulation, and the balance of payments. The transfer of the main levers of accumulation to international capital, mediated by US-led financial institutions, and regulated by US-controlled international organisations, has consolidated the material basis of neoliberalism.
Transcending neoliberalism will involve both economic and political transformations that can be addressed only through the construction of an alternative system of accumulation. This project will require systematically dismantling the material basis of neoliberalism through a series of political initiatives, which will support a shift to less unequal distributions of income, wealth and power, as a fundamental condition for democracy. But these policy measures need to be supported by a re-articulated working class, as one of the main levers for its own economic and social recomposition. This virtuous circle cannot be wished into being. Its elements cannot be addressed purely academically, or through the organisation of another vanguard party, or simply through political alliances between existing forces. Development of new forms of political expression and representation by the working class are required in face of a hostile domestic and international environment will need to be confronted.
The IIPPE working group on neoliberalism focuses its attention on:
Kean Birch is a lecturer in human geography at the University of Strathclyde[1]. Previously he was a research fellow in the Centre for Public Policy for Regions at the University of Glasgow. His current research focuses on the relationship between varieties of neoliberalism and neoliberalisation in regional restructuring, the knowledge-based economy and the emerging biotechnology industry.
Please note: Kean is helping to coordinate the IIPPE neoliberalism working group so please feel free to contact him about joining the working group or suggesting activities to pursue under its auspices. keanbirch@gmail.com
Patrick Bond is a political economist and research professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in the School of Development Studies where he directs the Centre for Civil Society (http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs). Patrick’s recent authored and edited books include Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society (UKZN Press and Rozenberg Publishers, 2008); The Accumulation of Capital in Southern Africa (Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, 2007); Looting Africa: The Economics of Explotiation (Zed Books and UKZN Press, 2006), Talk Left, Walk Right: South Africa’s Frustrated Global Reforms (UKZN Press, 2006). Patrick moved permanently to Southern Africa in 1989 following work in the media (Marketplace Radio and Pacifica Radio) and at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC.
patricksouthafrica@gmail.com
Kirsten Besemer is a PhD student at the University of Chester where she is researching the effects of trade liberalisation on South Vietnamese rice farmers. In particular, she is looking at peoples’ knowledge of WTO accession and decisions they are making about crops, children's education, and the future of their farms. She is interested in both how people perceive WTO accession and how it affects them in economic terms. k.besemer@chester.ac.uk
Patrick Clairzier is a professor at the American Graduate School in Paris, teaching current issues in international relations in the undergraduate program. He also works as a consultant for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Paris. Previously he worked in the financial services sector in the United States. In 2009, Patrick received a dual Masters in international relations and strategic negotiation from the American Graduate School in Paris (AGS), and from the Université de Paris-Sud XI. His current research focus includes political and economic mechanisms for countering the current neoliberal hegemonic system.
patrick.clairzier@ags.edu
Judith Clifton is a senior lecturer at the University of Cantabria (Spain) where she has been working with Daniel Díaz-Fuentes for a decade on the privatization of public services (especially Latin America and Europe), and is now interested in the emergence of Transnational Corporations in these sectors (water, energy, communications and transportation). Their latest book on this topic is Transforming Public Enterprise: Networks, Integration and Transnationalization (Palgrave, 2007). judith.clifton@unican.es
Christine Cooper is a professor of accounting at Strathclyde University. Her research is concerned with the economic, political and social impact of accounting on our everyday lives. This has produced publications in diverse social arenas including social and environmental accounting, gender, privatization, deskilling of accountants and book-keepers, insolvency and accountability. c.cooper@strath.ac.uk
Kathya Cordova Pozo has a BSc in Business Administration and BSc in Economics (Cochabamba-Bolivia). In 2003, she received her Masters in International and Political Economics from Université de Grenoble 2 (France) where she is currently a PhD student. She also works as a research fellow and project manager in South Group research institute (Bolivia). kathya.cordova@southgroup.nl
Daniel Díaz-Fuentes is a professor at the University of Cantabria (Spain) where he has been working with Judith Clifton for a decade on the privatization of public services (especially Latin America and Europe), and is now interested in the emergence of Transnational Corporations in these sectors (water, energy, communications and transportation). Their latest book on this topic is Transforming Public Enterprise: Networks, Integration and Transnationalization (Palgrave, 2007). daniel.diaz@unican.es
Jesse Goldstein recieved an MA in politics from York University (Toronto). Currently he teaches courses on neoliberalism and on the welfare/workfare state at Baruch College and is pursuing a PhD in sociology at City University of New York. His current research focus is on a cultural and social political economy of waste. jesseg1026@gmail.com
Ali Riza Gungen is a research assistant in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Middle East Technical University of Ankara (Turkey). He is working on the public debt management in Turkey in the last three decades and its relations with the deepening of neoliberalism-financialisation. aliriza@metu.edu.tr
Thomas Marois is a lecturer of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He teaches on the political economy of finance, debt, and development and contributes to lectures on globalization, neoliberalism, capital flows, and privatization. He has published articles critical of neoliberalism in Historical Materialism and the Canadian Journal of Political Science. He is currently working on a book-length manuscript addressing problems in bank ownership, crisis, and finance-led neoliberal strategies of development in Mexico and Turkey. tm47@soas.ac.uk
Michael McKinley is a senior lecturer in global politics in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the Australian National University. In 2007 he completed a major research project involving a comparison between the theories and practices of economics, strategy, religion, and war in the context of the post-Cold War world order – Economic Globalisation as Religious War: Tragic Convergence (2007) which was published by Routledge. His current major projects are (i) a study of the origins, theories and practices of US strategy, and (ii) a critique of proposals that the university-as-institution should become integrally involved with the agencies of the state in counter-terrorism. Michael.McKinley@anu.edu.au
Vlad Mykhnenko is a research fellow in the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham where he is working on understanding spatial socio-economic imbalances in Europe. Previously, he has held a research position at the Centre for Public Policy for Regions at the University of Glasgow. mykhnenko@policy.hu
Sebnem Oguz received a PhD from the Department of Political Science at York University, Canada. Right now she is teaching at the Middle East Technical University, Northern Cyprus Campus. In her dissertation, she studied neoliberal state restructuring in Turkey and is now trying to put it in comparative perspective. osebnem@metu.edu.tr
Stuart Shields lectures in international political economy (IPE) at Manchester University. He is a 'lapsing neo-Gramscian' interested in historical materialist approaches to IPE and particularly the Amsterdam School fractions of capital perspective. Stuart is convenor of the BISA International Political Economy working group, and the CSE Trans-Pennine working group. His research is focused on the neoliberalisation of post-communist states. stuart.shields@manchester.ac.uk
Susanne Soederberg is a Canada Research Chair and associate professor in Gobal Development Studies at Queen’s University, Canada. She is author of several books including: The Politics of the New International Financial Architecture: Reimposing Neoliberalism in the Global South (2004), Global Governance in Question: Empire, Class, and the New Common Sense in Managing North-South Relations (2006), and Beyond Corporate Governance: Power and Activism in the Era of Financialization (2009). soederberg@queensu.ca
Umit Sonmez is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). His PhD work focuses on political economy of energy in Britain and Turkey, specifically the liberalization and regulation of electricity and gas markets in two countries. He received his MS Degree in Politics from Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey. His thesis was on the development and spread of independent regulatory agencies in many countries after 1980s as a part of the neoliberal project dominant in the global sphere. He had his BS Degree from the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at METU as well. Umit has also been Research Assistant at the European Institute, LSE since 2008. U.Sonmez@lse.ac.uk
Jörg Wiegratz is a PhD student at the University of Sheffield, Department of Politics. His research focuses on moral restructuring in Uganda as part of
embedding neoliberalism in the country. More specifically, he applies a
cultural political economy approach to study the changes in the trade
relationships and practices between smallholder farmers and traders/middlemen
since the onset of (post-conflict) neoliberal reforms in the late 1980s.
Generally, the research explores the politics, sociology and psychology of
promoting neoliberal business culture. Prior to the PhD, Jörg has worked for
three years in Uganda; his research and consultancy work centred on issues of
industrial development, training and learning, as well as value chain
governance. J.Wiegratz@sheffield.ac.uk
Beaudreau, J. and Clairzier, P. (2009) Neo-Liberal Democracy: A Contradiction in Terms. Spectrezine, July 15
Birch, K. (2008) Neoliberalising Bioethics: Bias, Enhancement and Economistic Ethics. Genomics, Society and Policy, v.4 (2), 1-10.
Birch, K. (2006) The Neoliberal Underpinnings of the Bioeconomy: The Ideological Discourses and Practices of Economic Competitiveness. Genomics, Society and Policy, v.2 (3), 1-15.
Birch, K. and Mykhnenko, V. (2009) Varieties of neoliberalism? Restructuring in large industrially-dependent regions across Western and Eastern Europe. Journal of Economic Geography, v.9 (3), 355-380. [2]
Birch, K. and Mykhnenko, V. (2010) The Rise and Fall of Neoliberalism: The End of an Economic Order? Zed Books.
Bond, P. (2006) Looting Africa: The Economics of Explotiation. Zed Books and UKZN Press.
Bond, P. (2006) Talk Left, Walk Right: South Africa’s Frustrated Global Reforms. UKZN Press.
Bond, P. (2007) The Accumulation of Capital in Southern Africa. Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.
Bond, P. (2008) Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society. UKZN Press and Rozenberg Publishers.
Clairzier, P. (2010) The Larger Context of Haiti’s Earthquake. American Graduate School, February 8.
Clifton, J., Comín, F. and Díaz Fuentes, D. (eds) (2007) Transforming Public Enterprise: Networks, Integration and Transnationalization. Palgrave.
Güngen, A. R. (2006) 1980’ler Türkiye’sinde Devletin Yeniden Yapılandırılmasına Dair Yaklaşımlar Üzerine Eleştirel Notlar (Critical Notes on the Approaches to the Restructuring of the State in Turkey during the 1980s). Ercan, F. et. al. (eds.), Türkiye’de Kapitalizmin Gelişimi. Dipnot Yayınları.
Güngen, A. R. (forthcoming) Demokratik Konsolidasyon Kavramı ve Türkiye’de Seçkinci Demokrasi Tartışmasına Katkıları (The Concept of Democratic Consolidation and Its Contributions to the Elitist Democracy Debate in Turkey). Ercan, F. et. al. (eds) 'Türkiye’de Kapitalizmin Gelişimi. Dipnot Yayınları.
Marois, T. (2008) The 1982 Mexican Bank Statization and Unintended Consequences for the Emergence of Neoliberalism. Canadian Journal of Political Science, v.41 (1), 143-67.
Marois, T. (2005) From Economic Crisis to a ‘State’ of Crisis?: The Emergence of Neoliberalism in Costa Rica. Historical Materialism, v.13 (3), 101-34.
McKinley, M. (2007) Economic Globalisation as Religious War: Tragic Convergence. Routledge.
Shields, S. (2008) How the East was won: Globalisation, transnational social forces and Poland's transition to a market economy. Global Society, v 22(4), 445-468.
Shields, S. (2006) Historicizing transition: the Polish political economy in a period of global structural change? Eastern Central Europe's passive revolution? International Politics, v 43(4), 474-499.
Soederberg, S. (2004) The Politics of the New International Financial Architecture: Reimposing Neoliberalism in the Global South. Zed Books.
Soederberg, S. (2006) Global Governance in Question: Empire, Class, and the New Common Sense in Managing North-South Relations. Pluto.
Soederberg, S. (2009) Corporate Power and Ownership in Contemporary Capitalism: The Politics of Resistance and Domination. Routledge.
Wiegratz, J. (2010) Fake capitalism? The dynamics of neoliberal moral restructuring and pseudo-development: the case of Uganda. Review of African Political Economy, v.37 (124), 123-37.
RSA Research Network: Varieties of Neoliberalism and Alternative Regional and Urban Strategies, Regional Studies Association Research Network, in association with the IIPPE Neoliberalism Working Group and the FP7 Shrink Smart project.
Mykhnenko, V. and Birch, K. (2009) Forging competitiveness, sustaining solidarity? The knowledge-based economy, the Lisbon Strategy and regional disparities in the EU. Royal Geographical Society – Institute of British Geographers Annual Conference, 26-28 August 2009, Manchester.
Siemiatycki, M. and Birch, K. (2010) Varieties of neoliberalisation: Marketisation and public-private partnerships in transport infrastructure, RSA Research Network Workshop, 16 June 2010, University of Glasgow.
Wiegratz, J. (2009) 'The cultural political economy of embedding neoliberalism in Uganda: an analysis of changes in moral norms and trade practices in the rural economy since 1986'. Paper at the Millennium conference: ‘After Liberalism?’, 17-18 October 2009, LSE.
To apply to join IIPPE neoliberalism group, email iippe@soas.ac.uk or keanbirch@gmail.com